Pharmagraphics

Pharmacy label. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

The beautiful and mysterious illustrations in medieval herbals convey a wealth of knowledge about the plants they portray.

Charming family scenes in Victorian ads for children’s medicines were at odds with some of the dangerous ingredients they contained.

The name theriac survived for around for two millennia as a pharmaceutical term. But a ‘brand’ name is not always a guarantee of quality.

An 18th-century trade card reveals far more than its owner may have intended.

James Morison’s campaign against the medical establishment inspired a wave of caricatures mocking his quack medicine.

What have snakes, unicorns and crocodiles got to do with pharmacies? The history of these modern signs goes back to the Greek gods.

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